Target Tightly with Google Demographics

Want to give your AdWords campaign an even better chance of reaching the right audience? Check out Google Demographics. Google Demographics allows you to specify sites on which you want your ads to run. The program is only available to US-targeted sites so far, but it certainly is going to take the wind out of AdCenter's sails, since the demographic choices offered by AdWords are greater than those offered by AdCenter. Although you're not guaranteed that your ad will only run on those sites, this is still a good way of narrowing down the "looky-look" clicks and increasing your ROI. Google describes AdWords Demographics this way: A demographic group is an audience that shares a particular trait or characteristic. This trait might be age, gender, income, or some other factor. If your product appeals to young women, for instance, you might want to target sites popular with the female demographic, the 18-24 age demographic, or both. Please remember that demographic site selection cannot guarantee that your ad will reach only the exact audience you select. Most public websites get a variety of visitors. However, demographic site selection will help you choose sites where you're very likely to find the people you want to reach. With the price of Adwords skyrocketing in the more popular categories, Google Demographics has the potential to save advertisers a bundle. For example, say you're an online retailer of pre-teen clothing for girls. Demographics allows you to drill down further than "girl's clothing" and select sites that specifically cater to girls, 9-12 years old, from families with a household income of $50,000 or more. Ideally, your ads will run only on the sites you select. Google Demographics isn't widely known or used yet, and while the demographic information on larger sites is probably well known, on smaller sites, it's less likely to be so. We'll have to watch and see how this one shakes out. And if you haven't already gotten your copy of The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, you're losing money right now.